Irene is very, very happy.
Malcolm successfully connected the water heater to the electricity and now she can have a hot shower every (yes every) morning – as long as Malcolm remembers to switch the heater on, of course. As he needed to go back into the loft to make the wiring connections, and he came down looking in the same condition as he did 2 weeks ago, it was in fact Malcolm who had the first hot shower. However, he wanted to include a photo of Irene’s first shower – but the world is probably not ready for this yet.
It has been quite an eventful week. On Sunday we were invited to Judith for a traditional Sunday roast – roast goat - delicious and similar to lamb. Judith has lived in East Africa most of her life and currently cares for Pamella, a young Ugandan girl. Judith’s adopted son runs the local honey cooperative which sells some excellent honey.
On Wednesday Irene gave her final Business Studies lesson for the term. The students were most excited about being given certificates for attending the course. Amos, the Vocational Training Centre manager who has been translating for the past 5 weeks was delighted to be given a Mars bar by way of thanks. Next week the students sit their exams and then the College closes for Christmas and the national elections, reopening next February. Just as well Irene has lots of other things to do including helping out at Potter’s Village babies home.
On Friday Ezra, who is the Administrator at Potter’s Village, needed to visit Nombe, a village on the border with the Congo and about 15 miles from Kisoro – so we went along for the ride with Kristen, a Peace Corp volunteer working at Potter’s . The scenery was once again stunning as we drove carefully along unmade mountain roads.
Nombe overlooks the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the ‘Impenetrable Forest’ where families of Mountain Gorillas live. These are a major tourist attraction for wealthy tourists as a day’s trekking costs $500 a person – about 4 months salary here.
We visited the Nkuringo Gorilla campground (we didn’t see any Gorillas camping though) for a soda (excessively priced at almost 50p a bottle!!!!!) and to find out about their excursions. Irene would like to see the Gorillas, but at $500 she will have to make do with Malcolm. Shame.
When Ezra visited the local school it was us Mzungu's who suddenly became the local attraction with the children.
The signs this week are African road signs. The ‘Men at Work’ sign is fairly conventional. The second sign is typical from what we have seen here and in Tanzania but comes in various forms – sometimes bushes, other times branches and on this occasion a tree trunk. It is very adaptable to what it means - maybe we should suggest that the UK Highways Agency uses it?
You know you live in Africa when….
… you walk gingerly over the sharp, stony paths in your walking boots and realise others are walking bare-footed
… the second time you cook beans, and decide this time to soak them in hot, not cold, water before cooking, you notice little black boiled weevils floating to the surface and realise that you must have eaten them the first time you cooked beans. But you decide it’s not a problem and would have simply meant you had eaten extra protein.
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